journalists, citizens and technology
TRANSCRIPT
Journalists, Citizens and Technology
By: Christopher G. Lewis
A 2013 Nicholas and Anna Ricco Ethics Award competition submission
This image taken by Getty’s photographer, Richard Lam, appears
to show a couple kissing during the 2011 Vancouver Riots.
In reality, she had fallen and he was attempting to help her up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/vancouver-riots-2011_n_878128.html
Why are multimedia ethics so important?
Did you think of a word?
ALLIGATOR
Did you think of an image?
http://www.marathonbooks.com/Alligator.html
What makes pictures memorable can now be reliable predicted.
The team planned to design a “memorable picture” iPhone app.
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND LIES: USING FALSE
PHOTOGRAPHS TO CREATE FALSE CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
BY: WADE, GARRY, READ, LINDSAY, 2002
MAKE-BELIEVE MEMORIES
BY: ELIZABETH LOFTUS, 2003
50 percent of the test subjects created complete or
partial false memories
About one third of the subjects remembered Bugs
Bunny at Disneyland
How much information is out there?
Active Users
Tweets per day
0
50,000,000,000
100,000,000,000
150,000,000,000
200,000,000,000
250,000,000,000
2011
Active Users
Tweets per day
http://mashable.com/2011/09/08/twitter-has-100-million-active-users/
Mobile Users
Active Users
0
200,000,000,000
400,000,000,000
600,000,000,000
800,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000
2012
Mobile Users
Active Users
http://newsroom.fb.com/Key-Facts
Users/month
Viewed
hrs/month
0
1,000,000,000,000
2,000,000,000,000
3,000,000,000,000
4,000,000,000,000
YouTube
2012
Users/month
Viewed hrs/month
http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
Mobile uploaded
hrs/minute
Uploaded hrs/minute
0
20
40
60
80
YouTube
2012
Mobile uploaded
hrs/minute
Uploaded hrs/minute
http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
Uploads/day
Active Users
0
20,000,000,000
40,000,000,000
60,000,000,000
80,000,000,000
100,000,000,000
2013
Uploads/day
Active Users
http://instagram.com/press/
Do they still matter?
FCC introduces the Fairness Doctrine
in 1949
Intended to present issues to the
public in a fair and balanced manner
Eliminated by the FCC in 1987
Language formally removed by the
FCC in 2011
http://www.commlawblog.com/uploads/image/graves
tone-fairness%20doctrine-1.JPG
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS NATIONAL PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION
Ask These 10 Questions to Make Good
Ethical Decisions By: Dr. Bob Steele
The Poynter Institute
What do I know? What do I need to know?
What is my journalistic purpose?
What are my ethical concerns?
What organizational policies and professional guidelines should I consider?
How can I include other people, with different perspectives and diverse ideas, in the decision-making process?
Who are the stakeholders — those affected by my decision? What are their motivations? Which are legitimate?
What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes of one of the stakeholders?
What are the possible consequences of my actions? Short term? Long term?
What are my alternatives to maximize my truth-telling responsibility and minimize harm?
Can I clearly and fully justify my thinking and my decision? To my colleagues? To the stakeholders? To the public?
Profit-Making Model Budgets shrink to maximize profit
Advertising gains more control
and corporate ownership shrinks
Pundits Masquerade as journalists
Hard for the public to tell the
difference
Mistakes, spins and lies are nothing new
THE USS MAINE THE COTTINGLEY FAIRIES
What caused the USS Maine to sink in 1898 remains
unclear, but the sinking clearly started the
Spanish-American War.
The fake photographs taken in 1917 were not
revealed as a hoax until 1983.
http://architecturalwatercolors.blogspot.com/201
2/06/uss-maine-monument-central-park.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies
In 2012, WGN in Chicago reports live about a plane crash without verifying .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r3u9XE1150
Sometimes professionals accidently make mistakes
BRIAN WALSKI, THE LA TIMES MITT ROMNEY, “MONEY”
In 2003, Walski composited a photo to, “improve its
composition.”
During Romney’s 2012 campaign, a fake picture of
children spelling out “money” on their shirts went
viral.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/socialpolitica
lissues/ss/Romney-Money-Picture.htm
In 2004, John Kerry was added to a photograph of Jane Fonda speaking at an Anti-
Vietnam War protest.
http://leisure.ezinemark.com/famous-fake-images-in-politics-773667d55432.html
Are we becoming relics?
The choice is adaptation or extinction
http://moodle.solanco.org/mod/page/view.php?id=6817
“The Pentagon Papers” Published in 1971 by The New York Times,
detailed the United State’s involvement
during the Vietnam War
“WikiLeaks” Created by Julian Assange in 2006,
released thousands of classified documents
concerning the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan in 2010, and about the
Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in 2011
http://nsarchive.files.wordpress.com/2
011/07/pentagon-papers.jpg http://911.wikileaks.org/
Welcome additions or harbingers of doom?
ZAPRUDER FILM RODNEY KING VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWHdEeHNbXY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4
Russian Meteor Katie Couric
Citizen journalists lack training and accountability.
http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/fake-hurricane-sandy-photos/
Is the answer collaboration?
The Instagram option
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/11/01/why-time-magazine-used-instagram-to-cover-hurricane-sandy/
The New York Times option
http://projects.nytimes.com/watching-syrias-war
The Storyful option
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNV4yIyXXX0
Is there one?
Combine all three, with a few addendums
Of course, we could always sit back and do nothing, but then…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frKZyFYxQCY